US President Donald Trump has sharply criticised several NATO allies for not offering to help during the recent American-led war against Iran, telling NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte at a White House meeting on Wednesday that the alliance had "let down" the United States. "We were let down. We didn't need help on this at all. We demolished Iran literally in the first week, but it would have been nice if they would have said, 'We'd like to help,'" Trump said. He singled out France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain as countries that fell short of his expectations.

Rutte, who has developed a reputation for carefully managing his relationship with the unpredictable US president, pushed back diplomatically, arguing that European allies had broadly stood by Washington. He pointed to the 4,000 to 5,000 US military aircraft that took off from bases across Europe during the conflict, and described any shortcomings as "isolated cases." He also praised Trump publicly and on Fox News the night before the meeting — a channel the president is known to watch closely — saying he was "completely behind him" on the Iran campaign. After the meeting, Rutte told reporters that Trump remains "completely committed to the NATO alliance" and that Washington would "absolutely" protect Europe in the event of an attack.

Those comments, however, triggered a swift reaction from Iran. Tehran's foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei condemned what he called Rutte's admission of "active complicity" in what he described as "an unlawful war of aggression against a sovereign UN Member State," accusing NATO of violating international law and the UN Charter. Italy also moved quickly to distance itself from Rutte's framing, with its defence ministry clarifying that it had authorised only "technical and logistical" US flights under pre-existing bilateral agreements, not combat-related operations.

Trump also revealed that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had been close to entering the war on Iran's side before Trump personally persuaded him to stay out of the conflict. He said he would attend the upcoming NATO summit in Ankara — scheduled for 7–8 July in the Turkish capital — "out of respect" for Erdoğan, adding that he would not have attended had the summit been held elsewhere.

The exchange underscores the fragile state of transatlantic relations ahead of the Ankara summit, the alliance's first major gathering since the Iran conflict ended in a ceasefire. NATO, founded in 1949, is built around a collective defence commitment — enshrined in Article 5 of its founding treaty — that an attack on one member constitutes an attack on all, a clause last invoked in support of the United States after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Trump was not consulted with NATO before launching the war alongside Israel on 28 February, and European allies were broadly critical of the decision. The Pentagon is now conducting a six-month review of US force levels in Europe, fuelling concern among allies that Washington may draw down its presence at a time when Russia continues to pose a security threat to the continent.